Sinking Ships- The Cinema Clock 7”

Sinking Ships were a criminally undersung post-punk band, lost in the mire of the early 1980s explosion.  The band released two singles and two compilation tracks on the infamous Household Shocks compilation, disappearing off the face of the earth after 1980.  They seemed to draw great UK press at the time and even caught the attention of John Peel, who played the tracks on his infamous radio program.   The band opened up for several bigger names at the time, including the Psychedelic Furs, but never could tap into that same level of success as their peers.   A similar tale to many we’ve heard here in the past, hopefully culiminating in a new audiece for this excellent single.

There is a different rip of this single floating around, but I’ve re-ripped a copy I picked up recently for maximum enjoyment.  Once more, my good friend Goutroy and I will be teaming up to bring you the full 7” discography of the band.  You can find his rip of the Dream 7” over at A Viable Commercial, complete with an equally strong a-side and a curiously overlong live dirge crammed on to side B.   As for this single, the title track is one of my favorite obscure post-punk rave-ups, akin to the likes of Chairs Missing-era Wire and early Modern English.  The b-side is a catchy, jangly affair with a huge, pub-singalong kind of chorus that shuffles over the course of three minutes.

The Sinking Ships- The Cinema Clock 7”
1. The Cinema Clock
2. Strangers

*download it here*

4 Responses to “Sinking Ships- The Cinema Clock 7””

  1. Frankie,

    This is one of my favourite records. I fondly remember buying it on a rainy southern california day in 1998. Anyway, there are other unreleased tracks besides the two 7″s and compilation tracks.
    The rest of their recordings is the following songs:

    I Start
    Smiles and Guns
    Weight Loss (demo version)
    3rd World (demo version)
    The Cinema Clock (demo version)
    Strangers (demo version)

    I’m listening my old Sinking Ships CDR right now. So great.
    Apparently 3 people in the world care.

    Stephen
    obscure

  2. Mike Brandon Says:

    Ya man! Frankie keep it up! I lost two had drives simultaneously.. 4 terabytes of music. poof! gone.

    only NOW..as in today… I am backed up in triplicate.

    hurricane Sandy also took 50,000 records (the best – records) from me.. then the unsaveable drive crashes… it’s truly hard to believe.

    but… your blog (with all the active links) gives me hope to rebuild.. god knows if I “need” that much music in my life, but…

    SOR is still the heavyweight champ (of the still standing) blogs.

  3. […] both a mix of gloom and bite to keep fans of both sides of the spectrum happy.  If you enjoyed Sinking Ships, Language From Memory, Headleaders, Normil Hawaiians, etc. (basically, the DIY post-punk sound […]

  4. […] with both a mix of gloom and bite to keep fans of both sides of the spectrum happy. If you enjoyed Sinking Ships, Language From Memory, Headleaders, Normil Hawaiians, etc. (basically, the DIY post-punk sound from […]

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